If you watch my live show on Instagram called The Daily Vibe, chances are, you’ve heard me talk about HeartMath. I admit I have a slight obsession… or maybe you could say, they’ve captured my heart.
I actually stumbled upon them during a dark time in my life when I was experiencing obsessive anxiety. I would worry all day, every day. I had these thought patterns doing loops in my head, going round and round and it was effecting every part of my life.
At the time, I didn’t feel “safe” in my life. I didn’t feel a sense of security, so I worried all the time. When you don’t feel safe, it’s hard to relax because you’re in a constant state of fight or flight.
I was desperate to find something that could heal my anxiety because I couldn’t go on living like this any longer. I went to see a doctor who prescribed me an antidepressant. The pills ended up making me feel worse and when I returned to the doctor, she told me that these new “side effects” I was experiencing was my anxiety manifesting itself as new symptoms.
I was stunned. She was basically telling me that it was all in my head. She blamed the side effects on my anxiety but I knew in my heart it was from the medication. I stopped taking them and the side effects subsided but I was back to square one with racing thoughts and not having anything that could help me.
From there I started searching for natural and holistic remedies. I stumbled upon HeartMath one day, and when I tried their heart-breathing technique, I could immediately feel a difference. I closed my eyes and felt into my heart-space. I began to breathe slowly and feel a calmness begin to wash over me. Next, they ask you to activate “higher feelings” such as gratitude, compassion or appreciation. This brings your energy from a state of “dissonance” into a state of “coherence” which shifts your energy into harmony and balance. Learning this changed my life.
Before Heart Coherence, I was living in a state of constant dissonance. Dissonance means imbalance or disharmony. When you’re in this state, you are most likely in a state of fight or flight, so your body can’t relax. Your body is busy trying to fight off a bad guy or get the heck outta there. So as you can imagine, daily anxiety can wreak havoc on your life and you mental, physical and emotional health as well.
When I look back on pictures of myself during that time for my life I am almost unrecognizable. I wasn’t healthy. My skin looked awful, I had bags and dark circles under my eyes, and my hair had thinned out and become brittle. All of the stress and anxiety was prematurely aging me and you could actually see sadness and distress in my eyes.
HeartMath was a game changer. In these quiet moments when I would channel my breath and tune into my heart… I had glimpses of relief. This was a start! I had finally found SOMETHING that could help me, and the best part was, it’s natural and FREE.
I began to make HeartMath a part of my day to day life.
Anytime I was feeling anxious, I would find a place where I could be quiet and still and focus on my breath. I would place my hand on my heart and tune into the heart-space. Next, I would take some slow, deep breaths and activate higher feelings. I would begin to think about my daughters and FEEL all the love and appreciation I had for them in my heart. I would think of all the ways that I am GRATEFUL for them and how happy I am to be their Mommy. Next, I would feel feelings of compassion for them and their journey on this planet… and after about 5 minutes I would notice myself feeling more calm, centered, harmonized and balanced.
I loved the way that felt so I kept it going to see how euphoric I could become. As you go deeper and deeper into a state of coherence, you feel better and better. But you have to remember to set aside time to practice this and be diligent about it every day, because this practice works best when you do it consistently.
Each day as you bring your energy into harmony and balance, your energy builds stronger and you gain a more powerful momentum. And eventually you UPLEVEL into a new higher state of vibration. Your “baseline” shifts, from a dominant low vibration into a higher vibration and your life starts to flow better. Each day as you bring yourself into harmony, you are operating from a state of alignment and when you are in alignment, everything you want starts to flow with ease.
I am forever grateful that I found my way to HeartMath and eventually HeartMath found its way to me, too. I recently had the honor of taking HeartMath’s online course called “The Add Heart Facilitator Program.” In this course, you learn all about Heart Coherence and how the brain and heart interact and affect your energy in your day to day life. You are guided to journal about different ways you can “Add More Heart” to your life.
I can’t wait to share more ways that HeartMath and the Add Heart Facilitator have helped me and have been a blessing, so look for my next blog when I share with you real stories on how HeartMath and the Add Heart Facilitator Program is changing my life.
Special thanks to my friends at HeartMath for sending me the Add Heart Facilitator Course!
Love, Light & Positive Energy,
Shannon Nicole
Article used with permission from vibewithshannon.com
